Saturday, February 10, 2007

winter running is expensive

so as y'all know, most of my running to date was in the summer, fall and balmy first half of this winter.practice started this morning, so last night i had to make a 11th hour trip to paragon to get basically everything but shoes.

i didn't get there until 7:15 and it closes at 8 and i was worried because i had no females with me to let me know when the spandex pants had gone horribly wrong. turns out, that was fairly obvious.

i've decided that women's running pants are the least flattering item of clothing i've ever encountered. for the most part there are two options.

option 1 - very tight tapered spandex, more like tights than pants. aside from the usual objections to spandex, as a shorter gal, i usually have issues with the taper because it never falls in the right place and i yet to encounter a petite line of running gear.

option 2 - an upside down pear shaped pant, that are somehow baggy-ish on top around the thigh, then tapered at the bottom! why oh why! i've definitely got curves, and these do nothing for them and are even *worse* than the spandex ones...

finally, fate intervened in the form of adidas, with a pair of pants that was baggy and tight in the right places. yeeeesss.

then there was the question of the layering. your first layer is supposed to wick the sweat away. okay, check, had that at home. layer two was supposed to both be warm (trap the heat) and continue to wick. layer three is supposed to provide warmth and be water/wind proof/resistant, but breathable. as you can imagine, you're talking high-tech clothing and that gets pricey.

so i look around and to add to my dilemma, everything is in pastel! (visual of me sticking my finger down my throat) because the store was probably raided by everyone else over the course of the week, basically anything that was not pastel was XXL. argh.

layer two was easy - a lilac/gray warm, wicking fleece thing. on sale. sweet. the third layer was harder. i had two options - something warm, windproof, water resistant and breathable or - not so warm, waterproof, and breathable (more like a shell). i hemmed and hawed and then saw the warm one was on sale, even if it was powder blue. done. 5 minute warning...hat, navy (i am breaking all sorts of matching rules), gloves, socks...check out...

"that'll be $229.00"

my face said it all. poor guy behind the counter said, it's not that bad...and it wasn't. it could have been much worse. but it was still over $200 bucks on "running stuff". pbth.

this morning though, when it was 20 degrees out, i was pretty happy to have all the stuff. coach christine would be proud. i managed to make it up to practice a little early even, and helped hand out name tags. i thought it would be a great way to meet some of the peeps, but of course, i don't really remember anyone's name soooo yeah. we'll see how that goes.

as mentors, the first few weeks are not about us. it's about make sure everyone's happy, safe, comfortable and encouraged to stick with it. so while i could have trained with the advanced group, i opted to stick with the beginner-intermediates. plus it was my first run since the marathon so i figured if i was feeling really fantastic i could always do the extra loop.

so i ended up running two lower loops (1.7 each loop). it was easy-breezy. everyone was in packs so i was even running ahead, coaching-style, stopping to walk or run with different people as we looped around. it went by really fast, and i hope that the people i talked to were more encouraged then annoyed, i confess i was a bit perky/optimistic. my friend sk8 (yes, nickname) did awesome, and was pleasantly surprised that she felt good. actually everyone looked really good and actually happy. it was very funny, i feel like after our first practice people looked much more scraggly. maybe it's because of all the layers and the cold, you don't get red exercise face as much.

then it was brunch with sis, and i'm hoping for warm weather tomorrow. my left knee did hurt a little bit, so i'm going to keep an eye on that, and we'll see how it goes.